5. The American space program is a fraud, too. "I don't believe these (maternal expletive deleted) have been to the moon, either."

This man doesn't need a microphone. He needs medication.

The same syndrome is encouraged online by sites like The Huffington Post, where loons like Sean Penn and Alec Baldwin have unloaded bizarre commentaries about the "crypto-fascist scum" running our government, and no one asks what made these movie stars so much more mentally impressive than a plate of mashed potatoes. When they're not mangling facts, these embarrassing celebrity pundits routinely malign conservatives as evil humans who have no shred of idealism and no fraction of sympathy for the common man.

A few days ago, actor Richard Belzer unloaded his latest mini-term paper of political science on Arianna Huffington's wacky blog. "Conservatism is in its last throes, if you will," he wrote, "twisting in the wind, dying like communism did because neither philosophy works by definition -- they both operate from the fraudulent premise built around contempt for and control of the people."

This is the same Belzer who appeared on Bill Maher's show last year boasting that he knows a lot more about Iraq, reading his alleged 20 daily newspapers, than the soldiers on the ground there, since they're losers, "19- and 20-year-old kids who couldn't get a job." Armed with his superior knowledge, Belzer then lectures conservatives about their contempt for the common American.

Not every celebrity is a nitwit. Some are wise enough to hire political tutors. But it's all the same to many in today's "news" media. Anything a celebrity says, no matter how moronic, is defined as news. Liberals use to say it was dangerous to leave the country to a befuddled actor like Ronald Reagan. Some still do even now, when proof of his acumen has been documented for the history books. But they are so fond of truly befuddled actors -- like these.